11

Hmmm…well, I think that more then one person is reading this now, so I'm going to update in happiness. Have you noticed that even though everyone claims to have more time in the summer, not many people are updating? I used to find like, 16 updates a day, now I'm lucky to get four. Sigh.

Okay, well, hi again! In this chapter, I realized something, I have no idea how the Japanese traditional time system works, and since doing a google search is confusing, I'm just going to have them use ours. Let's say that Kagome taught it to our lovely historic Civil War-starters.

Disclaimer: "If I owned Inuyasha

I'd brag in the morning

I'd brag in the evening

All over this land

I'd use him to fight danger

I'd use him as a bribe

I'd make him follow Kagome

All over this land

Oh oh oh ho oh!"

Sing to the tune of, "If I Had A Hammer" which I don't own either. I don't own any of the songs that people sing in this chapter either. Various bands own all of these songs.

Normal POV

How Did It Come To This?

Previously: "THANK YOU!" Mario shouted. "Jeez, you guys! I've got a suit for Inu-hanyou over here. And I saw some clothes that Kagome left here, back at the hut. And—"

"WHAT!" Inuyasha yelled. He straightened up so fast that his back gave an audible crack before he took off to the village. His six companions stared after him in bafflement before following him at a slower pace.

"Your brothers weird." Mario told Sesshomaru as they walked slightly behind the humans and Shippo.

"Half brother." Sesshomaru reminded Mario.

"Naturally." Mario allowed with a nod.

They all found Inuyasha sitting in the corner of Kaede's hut with Kagome's abandoned clothes pressed to his face. Kaede herself was out for the day, as she had been called to another village to heal a sick barn, and so Inuyasha had received no grief while tearing apart her home in search of Kagome's past adornments. He was sniffing them, drinking in Kagome's fading, yet still precious scent like some sort of drunkard starved of ale. Her sweet scent, still lush in all of it's fading glory, was filling his senses with bliss. His head was filled with peace, and his heart was beating harder then ever before with bittersweet memories and love. The emotions were too much for Inuyasha, and he let out a soft whimper.

"Daaang!" Mario said, staring at Inuyasha. "If this is his reaction to her clothes, then we might as well put a sign on the gym doors that says 'XXX. Adult content. Must be 18 and older to enter, positive ID required.' Or, why even go that far? We could just stick a web cam on stage and sell it online as the newest porn video! Kagome will be getting job offerings from Penthouse within the week!"

"No way." Sango said firmly. "I might not understand most of what you just said, but Kagome explained to me what XXX means. And I'm telling you, there's no way in hell, heaven or earth that Kagome and Jenny would both let it get that far, on stage."

"Oh yeah." Mario said.

"And don't forget, Al is your replacement." Sesshomaru added thoughtfully. At Al's name his eyebrows drew together at little bit and he cast a rather stormy glance at a nearby chair. He, quite obviously, did not like this Al person. 'Annoying wench.' He thought.

"Oh, that's right, Al…" Mario looked at Sesshomaru. "Does that particular shade of pink make you sick to your stomach too?" He asked the inu youkai. Sesshomaru shuddered.

"Indeed, it does. As does that particular shade of purple that she is so fascinated with." He said.

"Spare us the confusing speeches of old friends, and please come back to the present!" Sango shouted at them, completely forgetting whom she was talking to and, in all honesty, not really caring either.

"Okay, okay! No need to get your hair in a twist girlie!" Mario said in a hurt voice. He was clearly shocked at someone talking to him like that.

Silence

Silence

Actually, it's not Inuyasha this time

Silence

Silence

Silence snapped.

"WHY YOU PATHETIC ANNOYING CUR!"

Sango screamed.

She pulled out her giant boomerang and brought it down sharply on Mario's head. Mario had barely enough time to give a startled squeak before it was brought down again and he was out cold for a while.

"Sango…" Miroku said quietly and meekly from across the room where everyone else was cowering from away from the raving demon exterminator. 'Maybe the heat has gotten to her…' Inuyasha thought, before he remembered that temperatures had been mild the past couple days.

"What!" Sango turned on him, her aura crackling so that she was almost as scary as Jenny had been that night when Koga had tried to force Kagome to marry him.

"I…I know you're mad…but we have to be at Kagome's side of time in…" He glanced outside the open door and at the sky. "In, I'd say about fifteen minutes…"

"Oh." Sango looked down at the unconscious Mario. "We'll wake him up in ten minutes." She said. Then she turned to the destroyed hut, and the high Inuyasha. She saw a black bundle and she picked it up. She looked at the contents a little confusedly.

"Huh?" Miroku picked up some of the garments. He looked at it for a moment, then said. "Maybe we should wake Mario up now…"

"Good idea." Sango said, and she hurried out of the hut, leaving the bamboo flap flop around in the late afternoon wind. Everyone stood there for a moment, listening to the silence from outside, everyone except Inuyasha that is, he was still off in his own little world. Then Sango came back inside the hut with a little blue vial and a wooden bucket of water. She didn't even glance at her companions and friends as she stalked over to Mario, uncorked the vial and stuck it under Mario's nose. Sesshomaru suddenly clamped a hand over his nose and he ran out of the hut, quickly followed by a gagging Inuyasha who had been violently kicked out of space by the harsh disgusting reek of the smelling salts, which were ten times to strong for a demons sensitive nose, which happened to be the main reason that Sango carried them around. Despite Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's violent reactions to the smelling salts, Mario merely groaned a little and turned his head to the side. Sango smirked and picked up the bucket, then dumped it's liquid contents on Mario's head. Mario shot up with a gasp, and glared at Sango.

"You didn't have to get me all wet!" He told her angrily. Sango just smirked again.

"Yeah, yeah." She said.

"Um…Mario?" Miroku asked, still eyeing Sango warily.

"Hmm?"

"What do we do with these…items?" Miroku picked up one of the pieces of clothes that had fallen from the black bundle.

"Oh, those…" Mario stared at them for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm not exactly sure…Jenny just gave them to me, she didn't offer an explanation or anything. Well I think that Inuyasha…Huh? Where'd he go?" Mario asked, looking around. Then he went to the door.

"Where did they go?" Miroku asked Sango. Sango just shrugged. She didn't know either.

"Oy! Inuyasha! Sesshomaru! Come back, you guys! Oh, for the love of--! Just get over here will you!" Mario shouted out at the two brothers, who reluctantly marched back in several moments later. "Thank you!" Mario said.

"What?" Inuyasha asked, then he saw what was in Sango's hand. "What is that…? Don't tell me I have to wear that?" He asked, horror in his voice.

"I don't think so…I doubt even Jenny would be cruel enough to ask you to wear a corset…Wonder what it's for?" Mario scratched his head.

"Oh…I asked her to send it." Sesshomaru said, stepping forward and taking the whalebone corset from Sango.

"…………………." Mario fell against the wall. "I honest to god am actually afraid to ask why you wanted it…" Mario said. Then he looked up, there was sweat running down his forehead.

"Excuse me?" Sesshomaru asked, his steely glare turning on Mario with tremendous force.

"No, I'm serious! I'm actually afraid to ask!" Mario said, he stared off into the distance. "This has never happened to me before…it feels really weird. Huh! Oh, well…" he stood up again and grabbed the other garments that had fallen from the black bundle. "The show must go on!" He shouted. "Now, someone help me figure out how to get this tuxedo on Inuyasha!"

It took all of them to get the suit onto Inuyasha, though Sango only helped stuff him into the shoes and to convince him to wear a tie. Well…the shoes at least. The whole tie idea didn't really work out because Inuyasha ripped it off, destroying the silk tie in the process, and then pulled the garment into little tiny bits, all the while claiming that it was suffocating him.

When they had finally finished getting ready (Sesshomaru didn't change at all, neither did Rin and Shippo, but Sango and Miroku did.) It was time to head to the well for the weird voodoo ceremony that Mario was determined to perform before opening the well…but this time, for all of them.

Present Era

They were about to start the next song. Kagome sighed and glanced up at the ceiling above her, with all of its colorful spotlights, and shiny streamers. 'How did I let myself get talked into this one?' She asked herself. 'How? How did it come to this?'

Everyone stopped arguing and assumed their places when the DJ gave them the signal that the song that was currently playing was about to end. They all stood in the same spots, but now Kagome and Jenny had switched places, Kagome being in the center stage, while Jenny stood a little bit to her right, and the two girls were up a little bit further. The curtain rose for the second time that night and the concert really began.

"Okay! How you all doing tonight?" Jenny shouted into her microphone. There were varied shouts from the audience, whose attention she had just grabbed.

"Really!" Al came up between Jenny and Kagome with her mike. "You know, I think that this next song, which I LOVE, deserves some special treatment. So…! Boys, I want you all to form a circle! Yeah, that's right! We're just going back to grade school days! Come on…Come on…" Al added wheedling.

"Just get up on the wall already guys!" KK said from his drum sets.

"Yeah, fellas. You don't want to see these broads when they're angry!" Blake added. Al and Jenny shot him a glare before turning back to the audience.

"Come on, guys!" Jenny said. Finally the boys in the crowd pressed themselves against the walls. "THANK YOU!" Jenny shouted.

"Now all you girls out there…" Kagome began. "I want you to grab your gal pals and dance to this song with us!" Kagome leaned over to whisper in Jenny's ear. "Why are we making them do this again?"

"So that years from now, they can all look back and laugh about how weird their graduation was. So that they'll have the strangest and funniest stories to tell their children and grandchildren…and because—"

"And because Jenny just wants to be mean." Al whispered before she went back to her piano.

"Oh, and we're cutting The Hustle and I Will Survive." Jenny added.

"Huh?" Everyone asked.

"I'll explain later but now, the people are waiting!" Jenny hissed. They all nodded and Al started off Dancing Queen,

"This is Dancing Queen." Blake said into his microphone in a low smooth voice.

Kagome opened her mouth and began to sing.

"You can dance, you can Jive,

OH having the time of your life" Kagome sang.

"See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the Dancing Queen" Jenny joined her on that line.

"Friday night and the lights are low

Looking out for the place to go

Where they play the right music, getting in the swing

You come in to look for a king

Anybody could be that guy

Night is young and the music's high" Kagome took a deep breathe before continuing.

"With a bit of rock music, everything is fine

You're in the mood for a dance

And when you get the chance...

You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen

Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine (oo-hoo)"

Jenny and Kagome both took deep breaths after they both finished that last part. The song wasn't over yet and Kagome knew that she had to concentrate but she found her thoughts wandering to the past. 'I wonder what Inuyasha is doing right now…' She thought before shaking her head, taking another deep breathe and continuing to sing out.

"Toto, I Don't Think We're In Tokyo Anymore" Indeed!

Inuyasha stared at the well, the self same well that he had hated for so long...all because it had separated him from Kagome, all because some stupid hanyou had been determined to make his life more miserable…Inuyasha's face twisted in a sudden grimace. 'That's right.' He thought. 'Naraku…' What were they going to do about Naraku? 'Keep hunting him, I guess…' Inuyasha shook off his thoughts. Kikyo was gone, Naraku was quiet for the moment, Inuyasha had been hoping for this time to come for a long time…but there was one problem now, wasn't there? No Kagome.

"Don't worry, Inuyasha!" Shippo suddenly said, next to Inuyasha's ear. Inuyasha jumped as the little kitsune interrupted his thoughts.

"Wh-What?" Inuyasha stuttered, staring at Shippo.

"Yeah, Inuyasha-sama, it's okay." Rin took his hand. Inuyasha stared at the two children, children he normally found loud and annoying, that were smiling up at him with such happiness and joy. Inuyasha smiled a little bit back at them, not noticing that everyone else was watching the three of them.

"Will it?" Inuyasha asked himself aloud.

"Yep!" Shippo answered. "Because we're going to go get Mama together."

"You guys are the greatest!" Mario said tearfully, completely destroying the moment beyond recognition. Everyone looked at him, and was surprised to see that the messenger from Jenny was actually crying.

"Umm...Mario, are you okay?" Sango asked hesitantly.

"I…I didn't know that people like you guys ever existed! I thought that Jenny was just a freak of nature! You have no idea how happy I am!" Mario was now beaming. Everyone was confused, except for Sesshomaru, who was now wearing his patented disgusted expression.

"You kept those bets, didn't you?" Sesshomaru asked Mario, the light that lights the earth after the sun has set, yet before the moon has risen made everyone's features shadowed and dramatic.

"In the words of a young man named KK, you better believe it, bub!" Mario said happily.

"Does he still say that?" Sesshomaru asked. Mario looked at him for a moment before replying.

"That's right…I keep forgetting that you were…there…" Mario said quietly.

"Okay, well…now that that's settled, may we move on?" Miroku asked.

"Huh?" Mario looked at the sky, and grinned. "Oh yes, oh yes. The show must go on!" But as he looked at his new friends, who were circling around the well with him, he thought. 'How did it come to this?'

The Present Era

It was soon to be Kagome's song. The song that she either would or would not finish, the song that so much depended on. Jenny took her new cup of punch and walked outside, looking up at the stars above her.

"How did it come to this?" She asked herself. "How did I fall so that I now must hide my name for fear that someone might learn it? How did I forget my friends? How have I forgotten the feel of the ocean? How did it come to this?" She laughed bitterly and crushed her cup in her hand, still looking at the night sky. "How did my people fail? How did we lose so much that now we are merely the ghosts of a trace of a pale imitation of what we once were? How did I die? How did it some to this?" Jenny asked herself one more time, before turning around. The dead woman walked back inside, knowing that tonight, this adventure would end, and she would soon be off to her next one. And so the dead woman, walked inside, knowing she was dead, but wondering why her heart still beat within her chest. But that didn't really matter, it was time for Kagome's song.

Please, please review. I'll be so much happier if you review. And as soon as someone reviews, I'll update. Come on, I know that there are people reading this. Please, please review! o

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